Automatic water-elevator.



No. 682,378. Patented Sept. l0, IQOI. .l. E. ARMSTRONG.

AUTOMATIC WATER ELEVATOR.

[Application filed Apr. 4, 1901.)

(No Model.)

Ill

NV ENTDH UNITED STATES PKTENT OFFICE,

Au'ro MA'TII'G' WATER-E Lsv'ATo a.

arm men s forming part of Letters Patent No. 682,378, dated September to, 1901.

' Application filed April 4, 1901;

To Hit/hows it may concern:

Be it known that i, J OHN E. ARMSTRONG, a citizen of the United States, residing at Santa Cruz, county of Santa Cruz, State of California, have invented an Improvement in Auto:-

maticWater-Elevators; and I hereby declare" thefollowing to be a full, clear, and exact de-' scription of the same.

'. My invention relates to an apparatus which is designed to utilize small bodies of water having a considerable fall, so that a portion of said water can be elevated to a higher pointby the action of the remainder through a suit- My invention also comprises details of com.

struction, which will be more fully explained by reference to the accompanying drawings,

in which Figure 1 is a general view of the'device.

Fig.- 2 is a sectional View of the receiver and buckets.

The object of my invention is to provide a mechanismby which a small flow of water having a suflicient elevation may be collected into a receiving-tank and thence delivered into an'endless chain of peculiarlyconstructed buckets, which chain passing over a drum atthe upper'end acts to drive a pump which takes its supply from the same receiver and paratus.

lifts ,a portion of the water arriving from the ceiver and the source.

As here illustrated, A represents a spring such as are often .foundon hillsides and which sometimes supply but a very small quantity of water. By means of a pipe 2the water'from this spring is delivered into a tank or receiver 3, located upon the top or a tower, as 4,'or it may be placed at asuflicient height in a'tree or upon averticalv'v'all of rock or sourceof supply to an elevation above the revanyplace where asufiicient fall from the tank can be had for the purposes of the ap- J ournaled with suitable relation to the tank is a dr'umo, mounted upon acrank- Serial No. 54,224 no model.)

shaft 6, the cranks 7 of which are connected by pitrnen 8 so as to operate a series of pumps, as at 9. It will be understood that use at least three pumps, the cranks of which may be set at equidistant spaces aronnd'the shaft, so that the pumps are operated in a continuous manner. The pumps 9 are set inside the tank 301 suitably connected therewith by an inlet-pipe, as atlO, and the delivery-pipe 11 may lead to any distant or elevated place Where the water is required at some point above the level'of the spring A. Around the drum 5 passesa belt or chain of similar drum 5?, the shaft of which is journaled vertically below that of the upper drum. The distance between these drums should be as great as possible,dep endinghcwovenupon the supply otwater from the spring. If the supply is small, it will take a considerable time to fill-the tank 3,.ahd when the latter is through a pipe 13, which .deliversinto the filled, from one to the other without waste, the object being where a small quantity of water is available to gradually fill the buckets uritil a sufficient weight has accumulatedupon pump and give a number of strokes thereof, this number d-nending upon the height at quent length. of the belt, and as the pump amount in the tank to supply the pump. The

' buckets 15 are here shown made conical in shape, the apex of each bucket being located the supply of water he not larger than a leadpenoil, thetank will be gradually filled until it arrives at the overflow: The overflow-pipe 13 is carried around from the tank to the out buckets i2, and they may also pass around afilled sufficiently the water overflows-from it the belt to start it, whenit will operate the.

a single pump may be used; but I prefer to buckets carried upon the belt 12. These buck etsare so constructed as to overflow, when which the tank's supported and the consedraws its supply from the already-filled tank, from which only the overflow is led into the z buckets, there will always be a sufiic'ient go each bucket will he filledto the. top of its pipe 1 side of thevbelt, which passes in .close proximity with the tank, so that when the tank is filled to the pipe the water will be delivered into the upper bucket, filling it to the top of the pipe 16. Through this pipe the Water then fiowsand in the same manner fills the next bucket below,and so on until a sufiicient numher of buckets have been filled and the weight is enough to start the belt. he tank may be located fifty or one hundred feet or more above the lower pulley. Consequently when the belt starts it will set the pump in motion and a number of strokes of the pump will be 1 made, thus lifting a corresponding amount of have filled to again start the .45 2. The-combination rates of an elevated tank, connections there elevation upon which the tank is pump submerged in the tank and a crank and water through the delivery-pipe. The belt may then stop when the filled buckets have reached the bottom and will remain stationary until a suiiicient number belt. It thus becomes automatic withoutany care or watching, and the proportion of water that can be lifted by the apparatus as compared with the total amount of the supply is much greater than can be obtained by a hydraulic ram. It also has this advantage, that it operates automatically with no waste of the water and needs no attention to keep it in operation.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters a similar drum located at Patent, is v 1. An apparatus for utilizing, a flow of wa-- ter consisting of a tank and connections by which it is supplied from a source, a tower or located, a

means for operating the pump, an. endless chain'of bucketseach lower end reduced and made conical, an openended pipe fitted to said conical end and extending upwardly into the bucket-whereby water is-delivered from one bucket to the other,adru in upon the cran k-shaft over which the chain passes, and an overflow-pipe by which surplus water is delivered from, the tank intothe buckets.

' in a water-lit ting appaof the buckets bucket of which has its from to a source of supply, an endless chain of buckets, said buckets having conical lower around which the chain passes, said tank being located in the vertical plane of and substantially within the belt, a plurality of pumps operated by cranks upon the upper drum-shaft, and supply-inlets to said pumps connected with the tank, an overflow from the upper part of the tank, discharging into the uppermost buckets-of the belt, an overflow connection from each bucket to the next below, and consisting of a pipe contained within each bucket, having its upper end slightly below the top of the bucket and its lower end extending through the conical end of the bucket, whereby the buckets are successively filled the belt and revolve the pump-shaft.

3. The combination in an. apparatus for raising water, of an elevated tank, a source of supply by which the tank is filled, one or more pumps submerged in the tank and connections by which they are supplied from the lower part of the tank, an overflow-pipe from the upper part of the tank, an endless chain of buckets, a drum upon the pump shaft about which the upper end of the chain passes,

elevated tank lower part of the chain passes, said drums and pump being substantially vertically in line with each;other, and said buckets being made conical and having inclos'ed overflowpipes discharging through the lower ends of the cones into the ne tadjacent buckets, the upper end of such pipes being open and just below the level of the tops of the buckets whereby each bucket is filled and the surplus delivered into the next bucket below.

In witness whereot' l have hereunto set my hand. v

' JOHN ARMSTRONG. Witnesses: f v

' W, M. GARDNER,

B, R, M nrm. i

until the weight acts to start.

the bottom of -the support, around which=the 

